NFC tags. What do "you" use them for?

[Deleted User]

What are you using them for?
1) when put in a car dock, I'd like it to launch google maps since even when not navigating, i still have it displayed about 90% of the time. (Dont own a S3 yet, VZW).
2) when docked at home, I'd like it to switch WiFi on.

 

[matttye]

I've got a few:

- One by my bed to enable silent mode or loud mode (it's a switch).
- One in my car to enable bluetooth, turn my ringer/notification volume up to full and run Spotify for me.
- One by the front door of my house to enable/disable WiFi and connect to my 2.4GHz band.
- One by my desk to connect to my 5GHz band.
- One at work to turn WiFi off, put phone in silent mode.

If and when it's ever possible to make the phone connect to a specific bluetooth device I've got a few more in mind too.

 

[Deleted User]

Car and BT is a good one. Thanks, I'll add that to my list as well as the ringer and notifications off while docked at my bed. Excellent!

 

[Hrethgir]

When I first saw those TecTiles, I thought it was a goofy gimmick thing. But seeing stuff like this, they sould pretty awesome, might have to get me some! You know, once Verizon decides we're worthy enough to have our phones....

 

[ylexot]

Don't get the TecTiles though. They're about three times more expensive than generic NFC tags.

 

[tlo07]

Are they easy to program? Where is the best place to buy them?

 

[jmar]

Are they easy to program? Where is the best place to buy them?

I bought mine from NFC tags, labels, and stickers. - tagstand

I use a Galaxy Nexus and the ones I bought are completely programmable. The one issued by Samsung are a little more limited but will work for most users. I use the apps NFC Task Launcher and Tasker for my NFC uses. Check em out. Tasker is expensive btw. Can remember if the other is free or paid.

OP...I edited the title to say NFC instead of NFT (proper anagram for the technology described). Hope you don't mind.

Edit: I use mine to toggle wifi, Bluetooth and screen brightness.

 

[Doit2it]

Can they be reprogramed? What's to keep someone from reprograming one you have at work to do what you want plus send $100 from your PayPal account to theirs? Am I just being paranoid?

 

[Devz]

Can they be reprogramed? What's to keep someone from reprograming one you have at work to do what you want plus send $100 from your PayPal account to theirs? Am I just being paranoid?

They can be reprogrammed, but you have the option to disable reprogramming. Disabling reprogramming is permanent though, meaning there is absolutely no way to ever change the tag again. So you'd have that added security if you so choose.

Being that the tags are cheap enough, I don't see this being a problem.

 

[XplosiV]

It might be worth a mention of some things I've noticed with NFC apps and tags.

Programing an NFC tag is all well and good, but from what I can gather apps that "program" them need root access to be able to do a couple of tasks, ie turn off/on mobile data. Not exactly ideal.

There are other apps that work slightly differently, they dont actually program the tag, but read the tag ID and you save a profile for that tag ID within the apps data and can therefore toggle mobile data without root access. Meaning also that the tags data capacity is irrelevant as the tags instructions are saved to the phone not the tag.

Of course, with programing a tag, if you do have an app like tasker, you can toggle mobile data without root access I believe.

Those in the UK, RapidNFC - NFC Tags, Stickers and Products are reasonable price wise for tags. Got 18 for under

 

[matttye]

It might be worth a mention of some things I've noticed with NFC apps and tags.

Programing an NFC tag is all well and good, but from what I can gather apps that "program" them need root access to be able to do a couple of tasks, ie turn off/on mobile data. Not exactly ideal.

There are other apps that work slightly differently, they dont actually program the tag, but read the tag ID and you save a profile for that tag ID within the apps data and can therefore toggle mobile data without root access. Meaning also that the tags data capacity is irrelevant as the tags instructions are saved to the phone not the tag.

Of course, with programing a tag, if you do have an app like tasker, you can toggle mobile data without root access I believe.

Those in the UK, RapidNFC - NFC Tags, Stickers and Products are reasonable price wise for tags. Got 18 for under

 

[XplosiV]

The one in trying out is NFC ReTag free version, the UI is ugly as sin, but it does the job, limited by how many tags unless you want to pay, only messed about with one tag atm though. So no idea on the specific tag count limit.

 

[matttye]

The one in trying out is NFC ReTag free version, the UI is ugly as sin, but it does the job, limited by how many tags unless you want to pay, only messed about with one tag atm though. So no idea on the specific tag count limit.

Thanks, nfc task launcher works for now but if I find my tags running out of space ill try it out!

 

[XplosiV]

Good to have the option eh

 

[akita]

Noob question(s):
Do these NFC tags work automatically when your phone is in range of the tags or does your phone have to touch the tags?

 

[XplosiV]

Noob question(s):
Do these NFC tags work automatically when your phone is in range of the tags or does your phone have to touch the tags?

When NFC is turned on, they just have to be in range, within an inch or two.

 

[akita]

When NFC is turned on, they just have to be in range, within an inch or two.

thanks for the reply

 

[MentatYP]

I'm embarrassed to admit that I had dismissed NFC as a useless gimmick without researching it first. Now it looks like NFC Task Launcher + Tasker can automate anything I can possibly think of on my phone, which I'm really excited about. My only concern is battery life. Does keeping NFC on all the time have a big impact on battery life?

 

[Eryl Flynn]

Not sure I get how this works. If I set one to turn WiFi on, and I set it on or near it. WiFI comes on. Does WiFi turn off when you pull it away or do you need to manually or get it near a new one?

 

[matttye]

I'm embarrassed to admit that I had dismissed NFC as a useless gimmick without researching it first. Now it looks like NFC Task Launcher + Tasker can automate anything I can possibly think of on my phone, which I'm really excited about. My only concern is battery life. Does keeping NFC on all the time have a big impact on battery life?

Nah. NFC only works from about an inch away so it's not like it uses a lot of power to broadcast over a long distance. In fact, it doesn't seem to affect the battery at all.

Not sure I get how this works. If I set one to turn WiFi on, and I set it on or near it. WiFI comes on. Does WiFi turn off when you pull it away or do you need to manually or get it near a new one?

NFC Task Launcher can toggle settings, or you can set up "switches."

You could set one with these two modes: -

Office mode: silent mode, WiFi on, low brightness
Non-office mode: loud mode, WiFi off, high brightness

The tag will then automatically alternate between those two each time you use it, regardless of whether the settings get changed in the meantime. So if you used office mode, then turned your phone on loud, turned WiFi off and put high brightness on manually, the next time you touched the tag it will still run "non-office mode" and won't actually make any changes to the settings.

You could also just set it so that it toggles silent mode and WiFi... but that wouldn't be the same, as if one of the settings got turned off (i.e. WiFi off, loud mode on), then the settings would still be uneven (i.e. WiFi on, silent mode off) when you used the tag.

The easiest way to see how it works is by watching videos, of which there are plenty on YouTube. Just search for "NFC Task Launcher"

 

[kayst]

If you stick a tag in your car dock, does it constantly look at the tag? In other words, if you put your phone down on a tag, is that ok, or do you need to move it away after tapping?

 

[B33R30]

NFC may not use a lot of power for TX/RX but it can have an impact on your overall system power if it is not allowing your device to go to sleep. You would never know this is the case without some good power measurement tools... I'll give some insight as to what I have seen, I measure power at a component level (not with this deivce but with others) and have seen NFC be the root problem preventing the device to go down to a low power sleep mode (S3). NFC would be waking the system (quite frequently) and burning in excess of 100 mw of power during these wakes. When NFC was disabled, the wakes were much less frequent and power hungry thus average system power was much better, ~30 mW. Lets hope Samsung found this during development

 

[matttye]

If you stick a tag in your car dock, does it constantly look at the tag? In other words, if you put your phone down on a tag, is that ok, or do you need to move it away after tapping?

You can keep it there. I only held it there for 30 seconds.. but in that time it didn't re-read the tag a second time.

NFC may not use a lot of power for TX/RX but it can have an impact on your overall system power if it is not allowing your device to go to sleep. You would never know this is the case without some good power measurement tools... I'll give some insight as to what I have seen, I measure power at a component level (not with this deivce but with others) and have seen NFC be the root problem preventing the device to go down to a low power sleep mode (S3). NFC would be waking the system (quite frequently) and burning in excess of 100 mw of power during these wakes. When NFC was disabled, the wakes were much less frequent and power hungry thus average system power was much better, ~30 mW. Lets hope Samsung found this during development

In real terms though, my battery doesn't appear to be any different with or without NFC turned on. It may be stopping my phone from sleeping but the actual power used is making such a miniscule difference on battery life it's not noticeable.

Obviously others may have a different experience, just sharing my own.

 

[omgitsspooky]

How much writable space would I need? Is 46 bytes sufficient? How many bytes is an action?

 

[XplosiV]

4 commands is 'typically' about 40-43 bytes. I'd go for Ntag203 myself.